The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-03-24

1t seems to be impossible to get the notion
out of peoples heads that the medical regis
tration bill was a measure to promote the in
terests of certain schools of medicine and
crush out others. A correspondent of the
Argus speaks Of it as 'this law to limit the
practice Of medicine to certain chartered
schools" As matter of fact it did no such
thing and could do no such thing. The branch
es in which it required applicants for regis
tration to be proficient, every one of them,
related to matters that every physician should
understand, whether he be an allopath, a
homeopath or an eclectic. 1t makes no differ
ence to what particular school of medicine
a physician may belong, he cannot treat dis
case intelligently unless he is acquainted
with the structure OF the human body and
the functions Of the physical organs. And
il he is ignorant Of the nature and effect Of
drugs he is as likely to kin his patient as to
cure him. This bill simply required elemen-
tary knowledge Of these subjects as condi-
ton precedent to mans practlcing medi-
cine, and sought to exclude from practice
only those who did not possess this knowl-
edge Is there anything unreasonable or un-
fair or improper about that? Is it more I'M
reasonable to require man to know some
thing before he undertakes to prescribe
medicine than it is to require that he shall
know something before he undertakes to
compound itP We have law now that for
bids men to compound medicines until they
have demonstrated before a State board of
commissioners that they are qualified to do
so. Nobody objects to that law. Then why
should any reasonable man object to law
that forbids men to prescribe medicine be-
fore they have demonstrated their qualifica-
tions to do so? Men who hold themselves
out as physicians without any knowledge of
the structure OF the human body or its laws
are simply swindlers, and they ought to be
treated as such. oh, but the people needn't
patronize them, says somebody. But the
people don't know them. A man comes into
town and adyertises himself as physician
who has had wonderful success in the treat
ment of certain diseases. He distributes circu-
lars containing glowing tributes to his skill
whose genuineness nobody has the means of
testing. He promises the sick restoration to
health If only they will buy his medicines
which he is always sure to place at an enor-
nous figure. 1t is promise which he knows
he cannot fulfil when he makes it, and tits
made simply for the purpose of enabling him
to fleece his victims. Peripatetic quacks of
this sort throng our State year after year.
They are meaner swindlers than the men
who run faro banks or the professors of
three card monte, whom we send to Jail when
they are caught, and it was against them and
men of their sort that the medical registra-
tion bill was directed. Doubtless there has
been Misrepresentation as to its meaning, and
many have honestly opposed it because they
thought twas a measure to confne the prac,
tice Of medicine to certain school A care
full examination Of the bill, however, ought
to disabuse any unprejudiced person of that
notion, and convince him that though some
Of its details may have been faulty, the bill
as whole was in the interest of not only the
medical procession, but of the people in gen.
eral as we'll